The proportion of senior women at the Financial Conduct Authority rose over the last year, but so did its gender pay gap, according to its gender pay audit.

Figures show that the average median gender pay gap at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) increased to 21.2% last year – up from 20.9% the year before. This is partly due to a gender imbalance at lower pay bands, particularly the fact that there are significantly more women in business support roles. The percentage of women in the lowest pay quartile has increased over the last year from 63% to 66%.

Another factor is that there are more men in senior roles. The proportion of women working in senior management at the FCA rose to 39% last year up 3% on 2017, but the same level as in 2016. Half of the FCA’s Non-Executive Directors identify as female and 44% of its Executive Committee.

The data also reveal that the gap between bonuses for male and female staff rose 1% to 26.2%. Although more women get bonuses, since they are based on salary levels men take home more.

The FCA, which regulates conduct by both retail and wholesale financial services firms, has set targets for its leadership team to be 45% female by 2020 and 50% by 2025.

It says: “We have identified two areas of particular gender imbalance in our structure – one at Technical Specialist level (in our higher paid middle-management layer), with only 30% female representation and one at business support level (in our lower paid layer), with 74% female representation. We now need to take positive action to ensure that the pipeline of talent for technical specialist and business support roles attracts a more balanced gender mix. And we recognise that a good gender balance at all levels will also help to ensure we remain on track to hit our 50:50 gender targets at senior levels – by ensuring that we have a good internal pipeline of both women and men to develop into our senior roles.”

Meanwhile, Citigroup revealed that the median pay for its female staff is 71% of that of male employees globally. The bank, which employs more than 200,000 people in more than 100 countries, says narrowing the gap will involve boosting the number of women in senior and higher-paying roles.